Our actions today determine our future!

Congress is in session, busy with the budget process. This is their opportunity to make a choice between investments in clean air, water and land OR handouts to corporate polluters. This is their chance to define our nation's priorities, and the question is: will the environment be one of them?

Unfortunately, Congress is already moving rapidly towards weakening environmental protections on behalf of special interests! They are slashing resources for enforcing pollution laws, promoting clean energy, and saving our parks and public lands! The Bush Administration would like to:

• cut spending on environmental priorities by billions of dollars over the next five years;
• reduce enforcement of environmental safeguards and clean-ups;
• Cut, by more than half, the number of toxic dumps that get cleaned up each year;
  
  "The Bush Administration has decided to designate fewer [superfund] sites
  for restoration and to shift the bulk of the cost from industry to taxpayers,"
  N.Y. Times Feb, 24, 2002

• decrease investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy sources while calling for the exploitation of fragile places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; and
• break past promises to protect open spaces from sprawl and other threats and to adequately maintain parks for future generations, thereby endangering our nation's land and wildlife habitat.
  
  "If we don't take care of the maintenance backlog... the system
  will have deteriorated to the point that we won't ever be able to catch up,"
  Donald Murphy, Deputy Director, National Parks Service. The Washington Post April 14, 2002.

WE NEED YOUR HELP! You must act now to help ensure that special interests don't win! Tell your Representatives to invest in a future that will be cleaner and healthier for us, and for our children!

SIGN NOW, and ensure that Congress will reflect YOUR interests!

Dear Congressman/Senator ____________:

As a leader in Congress, you have a tremendous opportunity to protect the public’s health and our natural resources. That is why I am asking you to help fight anti-environmental attacks that are expected during debate over federal spending for next year.

In the past, special interests have worked with their Congressional allies behind closed doors to reverse environmental protections and slash money for environmental priorities. Some of these efforts would have let big polluters off the hook for cleaning up toxic waste dumps, allowed pesticides and arsenic in our drinking water, delayed development of clean energy solutions, and endangered wildlife, parks, and public lands. This year we expect even more assaults on the environment through the use of these unfair tactics that undermine the legislative process and through budget cuts in programs that protect our environment.

Please protect our environment by saying no to these destructive anti-environmental efforts. We need polluters to get the message that they should do their part and pay their share to protect our environment. We need to stop budget cuts to already starved environmental programs. And we need your leadership to help make it happen!

Sincerely,
The Undersigned